Brave journalism
I congratulate Bernie Rosen and his letter (Write on, GLW #629) supporting some sort of breakthrough on distribution of GLW. I find nothing more inspiring than brave journalism, There is hardly any of it in the mainstream, but plenty in GLW.
One last suggestion: Let us please rename the "war on terrorism", which it is not, something else. Even on the left, as humanitarians, we are easily sucked in to using the language of lies. The so-called war on terror is no such thing. It is a war of terror that has killed hundreds of thousands. Bush, Blair, and their mascot, John Howard, will go down in history, and hopefully before an international court, as war criminals. If there were two minutes of silence in the city I grew up in, London, for the terrible deaths of over 50 innocent people, there should be, by my calculations, 80 hours of silence in Baghdad.
Stephen Langford
Paddington, NSW [Abridged]
WA teachers
The recent decision of the teachers' union in WA to not complete the irrelevant new report cards is to be commended. It's just the sort of union outlook necessary to defeat Howard's new legislation.
In 1919, British PM Lloyd George dismissed a union delegation by saying: "If a force arises in the state which is greater than the state itself, then it must be ready to take on the functions of the state, or it must withdraw and accept the authority of the state."
So much for the ALP's slogan of "community versus conflict". The truth is capitalism itself produces the conditions that justify the making of a new society without the necrophilic drive towards increased private profit, racism, and poverty creation. Lloyd George was much more honest, but the thinking is the same — workers should butt out of politics.
Real community can only begin when workers have control of their lives and economy and that's why the teachers' decision to tell WA Premier Geoff Gallop to get stuffed should be applauded by socialists everywhere.
Matthew Davis
Perth, WA
Hiroshima a war crime
We have just had the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki celebrated in the press as if it was some sort of jubilee. Where are the journalists who are willing to say that the intentional targeting of more than a hundred thousand civilians, including tens of thousands of children, was a criminal act? It is a crime, even in wartime, even when done by our old friend and ally, the USA, and regardless of the justifications afterwards. It was an act born out of hatred. It was on the same moral level as current terrorist bombings. It was a war crime.
Sean Burke
Parkerville, WA
'Shock and awe'
While we remember the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, let us also remember how it inspired the "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad. Military strategist Harlan Ullman was impressed by "the nearly incomprehensible levels of massive destruction" unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how it produced an "overwhelming level of shock and awe against an adversary on an immediate or sufficiently timely basis to paralyse its will to carry on". This hellish vision inspired Pentagon Dr Strangeloves to mount a non-nuclear replication bombing against Baghdad using more than 3000 satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles; they thought blitzing Baghdad would deliver Bush a speedy victory with little loss of American lives. Wrong!
The warmongers, who so blatantly flouted international law and the opposition of 30 million global protesters, were warned by Amr Moussa, Arab League secretary-general, that, "When I was saying this war was going to open the gates of hell I meant it... The destruction and negative consequences are not going to be just about Iraq. No. It will affect the whole region and beyond. It will probably affect the international system as well."
When we declare, "Hiroshima never again!", let us remember Hiroshima's hellish spawn unleashed by Bush, Blair and Howard upon innocents who are once again being bombed, burned and battered!
Gareth Smith
Byron Bay, NSW
Andrew Fraser
Andrew Fraser from Sydney's Macquarie University wants Australia to stop accepting black African migrants, including refugees. Why does he think Australia should exist for the benefit of whites, rather than people of all races?
Allowing high migration from disadvantaged countries to privileged ones (like Australia) counteracts the major inequity that some individuals are, unfortunately, born into nations with much worse life opportunities than others.
Fraser claims black Africans are comparatively unintelligent but over-endowed with testosterone. He ignores that the great majority of individuals, irrespective of their alleged or actual genetic predispositions, function better — more productively and cooperatively — when they live in affluent democracies. Therefore, permitting extensive migration into countries such as Australia reduces the amount of problems worldwide.
Fraser seems incapable of taking an unbiased global perspective, being happy to condemn blacks to a worse fate overseas — just so long as whites in the West aren't affected.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere, NSW
Howard's predictions
Remember John Howard kept predicting terrorist bombings in Indonesia. And after the Bali tragedy he repeated the prediction until it happened again at the Mariott Hotel.
We, the victims, can only hope that our little plastic prophet's current prediction about bombs in Australia does not come true.
Denis Kevans
Wentworth Falls, NSW
From Green Left Weekly, August 17, 2005.
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